Tesla has been trying to lock down the trademark to its name in China for ages. The problem is that a man named Zhan Baosheng owns the name. Tesla has offered him $326,000 for the name. He wants $32 million. That's not gonna work.
So, instead of giving the man in $32 million and letting him be rich, Tesla is just going to use a different name. And that name is 'Tuosole."
But that isn't Tesla's long term plan. Right now, they are arguing that the man is squatting on the name Tesla and isn't using it, much like registering a domain for Chili's on the internet in 1995 and waiting for them to pay you a gazillion dollars for it.
They're doing this in China's courts, and I doubt it'll be easy for them to get this changed. China has made knockoff SUVs for ages and there has been no issue. Tesla will have a hard time convincing them to give them the name.
Baosheng has registered for the Tesla name in Chinese and English, and has his own Tesla website: teslamotors.com.cn.
The logo is basically exactly the same, but the car on his site basically looks like a Tron version of the Model S.
So the Tuosole Model S will need to be sold there. And then Zhan Baosheng will make a killing off of selling Tesla badges for those cars.